Sao Paulo, Brazil - Less Meat More Veg - Greenpeace - Less Meat More Veg - Greenpeace

Sao Paulo has the largest school system in Brazil. So when the State education secretary decided in 2016 to participate in Meatless Monday twice a month, it had a huge impact (Meatless Monday is a campaign to get people around the world to go meat-free one day a week) reaching 1.7 million students. That’s 3.4 million vegetarian meals a month, and cuts 1,530 tons of meat out every year!

The schools serve a vegan version of the classic Brazilian dish, feijoada, with black beans, rice, kale and other vegetables. So students get something that is both familiar and vegetarian.

What’s next: Sao Paulo has shown that it is committed to making plant-based meals available to its residents. To get this commitment to the next level, they could try having two dedicated vegetarian days a week in all schools. That would be more than 13 million vegetarian meals a month!

What’s next?

Our supporters are challenging cities to race to the top on meat reduction to protect our climate, forests, water and human health. On the path of reducing meat consumption and production by half by 2050, we’re asking/challenging cities to begin with two dedicated vegetarian meals in all public canteens weekly by 2020.

Greenpeace’s global challenge:

Our supporters are challenging cities to race to the top on meat reduction to protect our climate, forests, and water. We aim to have at least 50 cities commit to serving two vegetarian meals (no meat or dairy options) in all public canteens weekly by the end of 2019. We expect to have at least 100 global cities make this or a greater commitment toward less and better meat and more plant-rich meals by 2020.

take action

In October 2019, city mayors affiliated with C40 and the Milan Urban Food Policy Pact convened to discuss future policies to address the climate crisis.

More than 200 scientists banded together, urging mayors to adopt ambitious food policies to reduce meat for the climate. 14 mayors signed a commitment to become ‘Good Food Cities’, considerably reducing meat served in their public institutions.

Dozens of cities are taking action. It’s a great start but not nearly enough. Add your name below to receive a Cities Toolkit that will give you step-by-step instructions on how to move your city or school toward Less Meat More Veg.

Thank you for joining the movement.


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